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Nox Fide
In the darkness that followed the Scream on Teuthem, a sect of nihilistic night worshipers was formed. Based at the core on the teachings of the High Church Purists, their members revere the night and welcome it as the waiting doom it is for their world. They view stars as bad omens as if any significant break in the spore cloud were to occur and light were to reach the surface in sufficient quantity it would play havoc with the ecosystem upon which they depend and fear. Beliefs The first understanding that the Nox Fide hold to be true is that life is meaningless. Our existence is a small drop in a large ocean. The majority of humanity spends its days clawing and scratching for temporary pleasures, desperately clutching at the idea that if they accumulate enough, do enough, their lives will accrue some sort of significance. In truth, regardless of what we do, all our lives amount to nothing. We will die, the moths will eat us, and in time even the greatest of us will be forgotten. Once we realize the truth of our insignificance, we can begin the journey toward enlightenment. By journeying into the Eternal Night, we learn to face our instinctual need to survive and give our lives the illusion of meaning. We contemplate our insignificance among the predators and other dangers of the Night, knowing that if the light we carry fades we will die. For when you stare a the Night, the Night stares also at you. Through meditation of the Eternal Night, the hold our body exerts on our spirit is lessened. We learn that life is purposeless and that only through death can we truly live. When we accept that all life is meaningless, we come to understand that the things we crave: money, fame, pleasure, are also meaningless. When we shed these preoccupations from our desires, we can reflect upon the dual nature of the self, body and soul. Once we reject the hold of the body on the soul, we can eventually free the soul from the body and in so doing reach enlightenment. While the Nox Fide hold strong to their Nihilistic practices, they are once almost forgotten followers of the High Church. The Ten Virtues have been reinterpreted towards the deeper truth that they see within them, to promote endurance of the soul against the inevitability of life, while assisting others to find the truth of the eternal night. Star-Walking Though it started as an individualistic ordeal, the practice of star-walking is a key religious ritual for the more pious of Shaelthum’s night cult. These disciples wander out into the swamps of Teuthem, armed with nothing but a lone lantern and their faith. These pilgrims wander as far from the glowing walls of Shaelthum as they can, and kneel before their lone lights to genuflect to the emptiness of the night. The rite earned its name from the Shaelthum guards who watched the believers file out into the swamps, their lanterns like stars against the pitch black. Purposes of the Star-Walk # Confront the earthly nature and overcome instinctive need to survive # Overcome material needs and desire to improve one’s existence # Understand dual nature of self, body and soul # Separate soul from body to escape the ultimate doom of reality. The Split - The Order of the Sacred Hunt At around the time House Cygnus began introducing synths, a splinter group within the Nox Fide was formed, known as the Order of the Sacred Hunt. Their focus fell on hunting the horrors of Teuthem’s night. When travelling on their Star-Walks they carry ceremonial weapons made from the bones and scales of Teuthem’s wildlife, and stitch trophies of successful hunts into their clothing. Their goal on their Walks is to kill the creatures that lurk in the darkness. This aggressive show to prove the superiority of humanity has caused much consternation within the elders of Nox Fide as they see these actions as overshadowing the true meditative practice that the Star-Walks represent. Seen as dangerous or suicidal weirdos by the rest of the population, they are only tolerated because they make excellent guides outside the light barriers and were the ones to first discover the venom produced by the predatory birds of Teuthem could be synthesized into a treatment for early stages of Supra-Cordyceps. Beliefs The Order of the Sacred hunt holds to a version of the Ten Virtues of the High Church. Those used to the traditional virtues found there may be surprised to find that Propriety has been removed entirely and Fortitude has become Courage and Endurance. The remaining virtues are interpreted very differently from the doctrine taught in the halls of the High Church, warped through the lens that sees all obstacles as being divine challenges to be overcome. Arhat Harrow One of the core figures of the Order, a psychic who somehow survived single combat with a tengilin. Seen as the personification of everything the Sacred Hunt is meant to embody, his story is almost solely responsible for the Hunters being a very small part of the populace who are not deathly fearful of sufferers of MES. Category:High Church Sects and Cults